Diffraction at HERA, Color Opacity and Nuclear Shadowing in DIS off nuclei

The QCD factorization theorem for diffractive processes in DIS is used to derive formulae for the leading twist contribution to the nuclear shadowing of parton distributions in the low thickness limit (due to the coherent projectile (photon) interactions with two nucleons). Based on the current analyzes of diffraction at HERA we find that the average strength of the interactions which govern diffraction in the gluon sector at x≤ 10⁻³, Q ₀= 2 GeV is ∼50mb. This is three times larger than in the quark sector and suggests that applicability of DGLAP approximation requires significantly larger Q ₀ in the gluon sector. We use this information on diffraction to estimate the higher order shadowing terms due to the photon interactions with N≥ 3 nucleons which are important for the scattering of heavy nuclei and to calculate nuclear shadowing and Q ² dependence of gluon densities. For the heavy nuclei the amount of the gluon shadowing: G _A(x,Q ₀ ²) /AG _N(x,Q ₀ ²)_{|x ≤ 10−3}∼ 0.25–0.4 is sensitive to the probability of the small size configurations within wave function of the gluon “partonometer” at the Q ₀ scale. At this scale for A∼ 200 the nonperturbative contribution to the gluon density is reduced by a factor of 4–5 at x≤ 10⁻³ unmasking PQCD physics in the gluon distribution of heavy nuclei. We point out that the shadowing of this magnitude would strongly modify the first stage of the heavy ion collisions at the LHC energies, and also would lead to large color opacity effects in eA collisions at HERA energies. In particular, the leading twist contribution to the cross section of the coherent J/ψ production off A≥ 12 nuclei at s ⁻²≥ 70 GeV is strongly reduced as compared to the naive color transparency expectations. The Gribov black body limit for F _2A(x,Q ²) is extended to the case of the gluon distributions in nuclei and shown to be relevant for the HERA kinematics of eA collisions. Properties of the final states are also briefly discussed. Received: 12 March 1999     

Pionic parton distributions

The gluon and sea distributions of the pion are uniquely determined by the requirement of avalence-like structure of the input parton distributions at some low resolution scale. These (dynamical) results are obtained with practically no free parameters, just using the experimentally determined pionic valence distribution combined with the constraints for the pionic gluon distribution provided by direct-γ data. Simple parametrizations of the resulting parton distributions are presented in the range 10^?5?x<1 and 0.3?Q ²?10⁸ GeV² as obtained from the leading-and higher-order evolution equations.     

High-p T hadron-hadron correlations in vacuum and in matter

Two-particle correlations within a single jet produced in deeply inelastic scattering (DIS) off a large nucleus as well as in heavy-ion collisions are studied. This is performed within the framework of the medium modified dihadron fragmentation functions. The modification occurs due to gluon bremsstrahlung induced by multiple scattering. The modified fragmentation functions for dihadrons are found to follow closely that of single hadrons leading to a weak nuclear suppression of their ratios as measured by HERMES in DIS experiments. Meanwhile, a moderate medium enhancement of the near-side correlation of two high-p_T hadrons is found in central heavy-ion collisions, partially due to trigger bias caused by the competition between parton energy loss and the initial Cronin effect.     

The study of gluon energy loss in cold nuclear matter from J/ψ production

The energy loss effects of the incident quark, gluon, and the color octet ccˉ on J/ψ suppression in p-A collisions are studied by means of the experimental data at E866, RHIC, and LHC energy. We extracted the transport coefficient for gluon energy loss from the E866 experimental data in the middle x F region(0.20 x F 0.65) based on the Salgado-Wiedemann(SW) quenching weights and the recent EPPS16 nuclear parton distribution functions together with nCTEQ15. It was determined that the difference between the values of the transport coefficient for light quark, gluon, and heavy quark in cold nuclear matter is very small. The theoretical results modified by the parton energy loss effects are consistent with the experimental data for E866 and RHIC energy, and the gluon energy loss plays a remarkable role on J/ψ suppression in a broad variable range. Because the corrections of the nuclear parton distribution functions in the J/ψ channel are significant at LHC energy level, the nuclear modification due to the parton energy loss is minimal. It is worth noting that we use the color evaporation model(CEM) at leading order to compute the p-p baseline, and the conclusion in this paper is CEM model dependent.     

Parton distributions,small-x physics and the spin structure of the nucleon

Several theoretical aspects in leading (1-loop) and higher (2-loop) order as well as various approaches of extracting leading twist-2 parton distributions from structure function measurements are discussed and summarized. Their implications for the small-x region (x⩽10⁻²) are analyzed and compared with alternative approaches where higher twist contributions (‘fans’) are added to the twist-2 LO terms in the evolution equations. The second part of these lectures deals with longitudinally polarized parton distributions related to the structure functiong ₁, in particular with various scenarios to explain the total spin structure of nucleons, including the gluon anomaly as well. Specific (realistic) tests for discriminating between these alternatives are discussed as well asx-dependent expectations, in particular for neutron targets in connection with the Bjorken sum rule. Furthermore, various theoretical expectations and sum rules for the transverse (chiral-even) structure functiong ₂ are presented and very recent developments of transverse chiral-odd (‘transversity’) distributions are briefly discussed.     

Dihadron fragmentation: in vacuum and in matter

Two particle correlations within a single jet produced in deeply inelastic scattering (DIS) off a large nucleus as well as in heavy-ion collisions are explored. These are performed within the framework of the medium modified dihadron fragmentation functions. The modification occurs due to gluon bremsstrahlung induced by multiple scattering. The modified fragmentation functions for dihadrons are found to follow closely that of single hadrons leading to a weak nuclear suppression of their ratios as measured by HERMES in DIS experiments. Meanwhile, a moderate medium enhancement of the near-side correlation of two high p_T hadrons is found in central heavy-ion collisions, partially due to trigger bias caused by the competition between parton energy loss and the initial Cronin effect.Arrival of the final proofs: 21 March 2005PACS: 12.38.Mh, 11.10.Wx     

Parton distributions in the virtual photon target up to NNLO in QCD

Parton distributions in the virtual photon target are investigated in perturbative QCD up to the next-to-next-to-leading order (NNLO). In the case Λ ²≪P ²≪Q ², where −Q ² (−P ²) is the mass squared of the probe (target) photon, parton distributions can be predicted completely up to the NNLO, but they are factorisation-scheme dependent. We analyse parton distributions in two different factorisation schemes, namely the and DIS _γ schemes, and we discuss their scheme dependence. We show that the factorisation-scheme dependence is characterised by the large-x behaviours of the quark distributions. The gluon distribution is predicted to be very small in absolute value except in the small-x region.     

Dynamical parton distributions of the proton and small-x physics

The perturbative properties of parton distributions generated radiatively from a valence-like input at some low resolution scale are discussed with the aim of explaining the physical aspects underlying the reliability of the predicted distributions in the small-x region. Aspects of higher-twist (shadowing) effects as well as small-x resummations are discussed. Utilizing recent improved data atx?10^?2 and a factorization scheme in which the heavy quarksc, b, ..., arenot entailed among the intrinsic (massless) parton distributions, we readjust our valencelike input and provide parametrizations of the slightly modified dynamical LO and NLO $(\overline {MS} ,DIS)$ predictions for parton distributions.     

Higher-order constraints on the Higgs production rate from fixed-target DIS data

The constraints of fixed-target DIS data in fits of parton distributions including QCD corrections to next-to-next-to leading order are studied. We point out a potential problem in the analysis of the NMC data which can lead to inconsistencies in the extracted value for α _s (M _Z ) and the gluon distribution at higher orders in QCD. The implications for predictions of rates for Standard Model Higgs boson production at hadron colliders are investigated. We conclude that the current range of excluded Higgs boson masses at the Tevatron appears to be much too large.     

J/ψ production as a probe of charge symmetry violations and nuclear corrections in parton distributions

We investigate the sensitivity of J/Ψ production in proton-neutron and proton-deuteron collisions to charge symmetry violations in the parton distributions as well as to nuclear corrections. It is found that the effects of charge symmetry violations in the quark distributions are confined to large x _F and difficult to measure in experiments currently being planned. However, from proton-deuteron experiments it should be possible to isolate nuclear corrections to the gluon distribution.     

Analysis of the logarithmic slope of <Emphasis Type="Italic">F</Emphasis><Subscript>2</Subscript> from the Regge gluon density behavior at small <Emphasis Type="Italic">x</Emphasis>

We study the accuracy of the Regge behavior of the gluon distribution function for an approximate relation that is frequently used to extract the logarithmic slopes of the structure function from the gluon distribution at small x. We show that the Regge behavior analysis results are comparable with HERA data and are also better than other methods that expand the gluon density at distinct points of expansion. We also show that for Q ² = 22.4 GeV², the x dependence of the data is well described by gluon shadowing corrections to the GLR-MQ equation. The resulting analytic expression allows us to predict the logarithmic derivative ∂F ₂(x, Q ²)/∂lnQ ² and to compare the results with the H1 data and a QCD analysis fit with the MRST parameterization input.     

Global QCD analysis of parton structure of the nucleon: CTEQ5 parton distributions

An up-to-date global QCD analysis of high energy lepton-hadron and hadron-hadron interactions is performed to better determine the gluon and quark parton distributions in the nucleon. Improved experimental data on inclusive jet production, in conjunction with precise deep inelastic scattering data, place good constraints on the gluon over a wide range of x; while new data on asymmetries in Drell-Yan processes contribute to better determine the d/u ratio. Comparisons with results of other recent global analyses are made, and the differences are described. Open issues and the general problem of determining the uncertainties of parton distributions are discussed. Received: 7 April 1999 / Published online: 21 December 1999     

Dynamical parton distributions of the nucleon and very small-x physics

Utilizing recent DIS measurements (F_2,L) and data on dilepton and high-E_T jet production we determine the dynamical parton distributions of the nucleon generated radiatively from valence-like positive input distributions at optimally chosen low resolution scales. These are compared with ‘standard’ distributions generated from positive input distributions at some fixed and higher resolution scale. It is shown that up to the next-to-leading order NLO(, DIS) of perturbative QCD considered in this paper, the uncertainties of the dynamical distributions are, as expected, smaller than those of their standard counterparts. This holds true in particular in the presently unexplored extremely small-x region relevant for evaluating ultrahigh energy cross sections in astrophysical applications. It is noted that our new dynamical distributions are compatible, within the presently determined uncertainties, with previously determined dynamical parton distributions.     

Dynamical determination of parton and gluon distributions in quantum chromodynamics

Using the dynamical assumption that at low resolution-energies hadrons consist of valence quarks only, we calculate uniquely nucleonic as well as pionic parton and gluon distributions within the framework of QCD, and give analytic expressions for their x- and Q²-dependence. Applications to dilepton and W-boson Drell-Yan production in pN and πN reactions are illustrated and possible applications to high-p_T processes are discussed.     

Dynamically generated parton distributions for high energy collisions

The parton distributions of the nucleon are evaluated dynamically using the assumption that at some low resolution scale the nucleon consists entirely of valence quarks. A simple parametrization of the resulting gluon distribution is presented, forx? 10^?5 up toQ ²?10⁶ GeV². This gluon distribution is predicted dicted to be much steeper and larger in the very smallx region (x<10^?2) than usually assumed. Applications to deep inelastic scaling violations and heavy quark (c, b, t) contribution are discussed and presented as well as hadronic heavy quark production at SSC/LHC energies. For example, the \(b\bar b\) production rate at 40 TeV is predicted to be about an order of magnitude larger than that estimated with other gluon distributions so far.     

Shadowing effects in nuclear parton distributions for small values ofx

The shadowing corrections to gluon and quark distributions in nuclei in the region of small values ofx are discussed. They are related to parton distributions in a pomeron which are in principle measurable in hard diffractive processes on the nucleon target. Multiple scattering corrections to shadowing are considered in a model dependent way. The perturbative QCD evolution of shadowing is also taken into account. Various possibilities of the partonic content of a pomeron are considered. It is shown in particular that the conventional parametrizations of parton distributions in a pomeron which are based on the assumption that it consists mostly of gluons imply substantial nuclear shadowing in gluon distributions in heavy nuclei. Possible phenomenological implications of shadowing corrections in nuclear parton distributions for various semi-hard processes with nuclear targets are briefly discussed.     

Comparisons Between Additional Parton Evolution and Q2-Rescaling Models Based on Recombination Effect

Comparisons between the additional parton evolution (APE) model and Q²-rescaling (QR) model based on the recombination effect are made by means of investigating deep-inelastic (DIS) structure functions F₂^A, nuclear Drell-Yan process and nuclear gluon distributions. While explaining experimentally measured F₂^A(x) structure functions, the difference in the recombination results of the two models mainly lies in their sensitivity to input parton distributions and Q²-dependence. In predicting the nuclear Drell-Yan ratio, the APE model gives more reasonable results in the small x region than those of the QR model. The two motlels offer similar predictions of the nuclear gluon ratio G_sn(x)/G_c(x) which are extracted from the inelastic J/ψ production process.